Governor of Borno state, Babagana Zulum, has suspended the entire staff of the general hospital, in Ngala area of the state.
Those suspended includes resident medical doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and lab technicians.
The entire staff under the government payroll at the hospital, were said to be absent on Monday morning when the governor paid an unscheduled visit to the hospital.
They were said to have abandoned their duty posts to server as humanitarian workers of an international non-governmental organisation (NGO) managing hundreds of patients at the facility, including internally-displaced persons (IDPs).
The governor who was received by a field coordinator of the NGO, expressed disappointment finding out that despite high turnout of patients, no government paid staff, from doctors down to clerical staff, was at the hospital as at 11am.
“This is a General Hospital belonging to Borno state government. Unfortunately, there is no single state government staff here to attend to all these patients, and we promptly pay all of them salaries,” Zulum said.
“These humanitarian workers from the iNGO (fhi360) are supposed to complement the state Government staff but not to completely take over the Hospital.
“I am directing the Borno State Hospitals Management Board, if there is any staff on the payroll of this Hospital, to immediately suspend all the workers on government payroll. I will be back to this hospital, hoping to see the opposite of what I saw today.”
Recall that in 2019, something transpired after governor Zulum paid an unscheduled visit to a hospital in Maiduguri, the state capital, around 1 am and did not meet any doctor on duty.
The doctors were subsequently suspended by the governor.
Similarly in February, this year, the governor visited a school at 6:30 am and met only one teacher on duty. He asked that the teacher be promoted for her dedication to work, and also to commensurate with her years of experience in service. He also rewarded with an undisclosed amount of money.
